How should we respond to the poor?

Watch the complete sermon here: https://www.bridges.church/messages/messages/called-to-compassion/

Hi, friends. Here’s a question for us to just briefly look at today is how are we as Christians called by God to respond to the poor? I’ve been thinking about this the last couple days as we had Our last worship service was our Compassion Sunday, where once a year we focus on needs around us and how we can best, as the body of Christ, step in to help meet the needs of the poor and the vulnerable and the hurting around us.

But it inevitably raises this question of what are we supposed to do about the poor? Especially when you drive down the road and you see somebody standing on a street corner or they’re in front of a store and they’re asking you for money, what do you do about that?

What does Scripture have to say about that? Well, Scripture has so much to say about Christians responding to the poor. But what should we do in those moments? Should we give money? Should we not give money?

Should we give something else instead? And I know that there’s a variety of opinions and convictions around this. One of the things that I’ve learned, though, over time as I’ve wrestled with this question, is that it is much, much easier for us to talk about poverty and to talk about need in a general sense, unless it affects us personally.

Then of course, it’s a very personal issue. But if we’re talking about someone else’s poverty, it’s easy for us to talk about it in a broad, general sense instead of in a specific way, because I think there’s this tendency within us to rationalize as to why we should not help a person who’s dealing with something I’m not going to give because we don’t know how they would use that, or they’ll just abuse it.

Or perhaps they’re poor because of some decisions that they made on their own. And so then we’ll kind of rationalize it away. And one of the things I would just encourage you to do, and I call myself to do as well, anytime you see a person in need is to recognize that the poor in God’s eyes have a name, they have a face, they have needs, they have a heart, they have burdens, they have fears, they have questions.

And anytime we generalize poverty, we move away from what Scripture would want to say, which is that every person who is poor, every person who is vulnerable, is made in God’s image. And anytime that we show partiality or any time that we withhold good because of a specific concern, and we don’t see them as an actual human being with needs and a name and with concerns.

And we don’t see them as being made in God’s image. We are showing contempt to their Maker. That’s What James Chapter 2 talks about, the sin of favoritism, the sin of partiality. And there are many ways to apply that. But what I guess I’m calling us to is to continue to recognize that when Jesus saw the crowds, he saw more than just the crowds.

He saw individual needs. Matthew 9 says that when Jesus saw them, he was moved with compassion. And whether it was him walking through a crowd and he sees a guy up on a tree named Zacchaeus, Jesus turns and looks at him and knows his name, and he calls him down and he spends time with him. Or the woman who in the midst of this crowd is reaching out and touches the hem of Jesus garment, that was an individual that Jesus took time to notice.

Or as the crowd is going by, as Jesus is going through to Jerusalem and he hears the beggar saying, son of David, have mercy on me.

Jesus stops and he hears, even though those around him are trying to shush that person again, poverty has a name. Poverty has a face. And when people are poor, there could be any number of reasons why a person might be in that condition. It might be through some foolish decisions that they have made.

The Bible has some things to say about that, but it also could be through no fault of their own.

The Bible has something to say about that. Specifically, you look in the Gospel of John, chapter 9, where Jesus encounters a man who is blind. And the disciples are wondering, well, was this person blind because of something they did, or was he just born this way? And Jesus was talking about that particular situation there.

And sometimes that person is in need or is impoverished because of policies or because of something perhaps systemic or a law or something that might hinder their ability to be able to get ahead.

We don’t know. But whatever the reason is, what I want to encourage us to do is to never let those reasons be a reason for us to not see a person as an individual, to see them as being made in the image of God. Now, we do have stewardship over the things that God gives us. And so again, we have to wrestle with God.

What do you want me to do in this situation?

What I would encourage us to do is to think practically in those moments, maybe you can’t do as much as maybe somebody else for whatever reason financially. But what I found is I’m always looking for ways to. When a person is asking for something to say, what can I do for this person? Rather than why Should I avoid giving to this person?

Or what can’t I do?

Look, I can’t do all these things. I try to wrestle with, what is it that I can do? And so I just internally pray in those moments, God, what would you have me to do? And God inevitably speaks in a still, small voice. I know that these are some really, again, big questions that we’re wrestling with, and it can get into any number of areas for us.

But I hope that we are living life as believers with open hands and saying, God, whatever you’ve given me is from you. And so how indeed are we to respond to the poor? We’re to respond with humility. We’re to respond with compassion, just as Jesus did. We’re to respond by recognizing that people who are in this condition are made in God’s image and have worth, whether or not they’re in this situation because of their own doing or not.

That doesn’t affect their value and their worth. And we’re to respond with action. We’re to put our deeds, our faith, indeed in action. Really, the whole book of James is about that. How do we walk out what it is that we say that we believe?

Well, I’d love to continue to have this conversation with any of you that would perhaps have thoughts of agreement or maybe even contrasting thoughts. And it’s good for us to always go back to Scripture and to look at the example of Jesus and to ultimately look at the character of God and to look at the way that God’s heart is for the poor.

We see it throughout the the Bible, from Genesis all the way to Revelation. Really, there’s not a book that doesn’t address this issue. And so neither should we push it to the side or think in general terms.

Let’s get specific. Let’s act with compassion. Let’s put our faith into action. Thanks so much for joining us today.